WD Passport not showing up on MacBook Air M2

raymundtanchuling Said:

"WD Passport not showing up on MacBook Air M2: Hi! I recently bought a Macbook Air M2. I couldn't get my old WD Discovery My Passport to show up on the laptop whenever I plug it in using an Apple USB-C Multiport Adapter.[...]"

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Getting a Hard Drive to Be Seen:

Three Things to Try...

A. Start with a Restart:

Restart your Mac, and see if it then is fixed.

B. Refresh Finder:

1. Open: a new Finder window
2. Go To: Apple menu
3. Select: Force Quit...
4. Select: Finder
5. Click: Refresh button

C. Unmount, then Mount the Drive:

Boot into Recovery Mode. (Silicon Chip or Intel Clip): Then, using Disk Utility, see if the Hard Drive is seen. If it is, then see if you need to click the “Mount’ button for it. Try rebooting once more. If of no success, then click unmount button, and then the mount button. Try rebooting once more.

NOTE: If you intend on using her for Time Machine Backup. then you need to format this accordingly. For a M2 MacBook Air, you need to user APFS for the format type.

jlindz16 Said:

“Hey! Just wondering if you found a fix to your issue? I'm having the same problem”

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I’m not the OP, but did you try what I mentioned in my reply?

If you have an Intel Chip, try…

Resetting your SMC and your NVRAM:

(Applies to Intel-Basel Macs Only) Sometimes changes (i.e. Installations) are made to the system and then settings (i.e. Networking) become corrupted, technically. So, reset both on your Mac. So, reset the SMC and reset the NVRAM or PRAM. It might take three tries. to fix this. So, be certain you have the time to do so.

Start With This:

• Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
• How to Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

JiguD Said:

“WD Passport not showing up on MacBook Air M2: As soon as I sent the above reply, I realised that my external WD HDD has just mounted, and I can see it on the desktop finally. This is really strange! I can't understand what is the real issue. It either does not mount, or it takes really long to do so. And this is a brand new WD HDD.”

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Thank you for the screenshot.

Getting this to be Seen and Read:

Export then Format this Drive:

Looking at the screenshot you’ve provided, I can see that this drive is of ExFAT format, meaning it is readable and writable by both Windows and macOS. For a 2022 Mac, I recommend exporting what is in there(if necessary), and then formatting it to APFS. That would make it Apple-only, and may make it recognizable right off the bat.

Do a quick format, as a secure format could take over a month —and I’ve been through that with the same drive on my 2023 Mac.

Screenshot:

Since you have an Apple Silicon notebook, the following might apply:

Allow accessories to connect to Mac - Apple Support

If your Mac asks you to allow an accessory to connect - Apple Support

An Intel-based Mac, or Apple-Silicon-based Mac desktop, will mount external drives if it can. An Apple-Silicon-based notebook might refuse to make a data connection because of this new security feature.

Thanks for your suggestion! I had formatted my new external HDD to "ExFAT" for two main reasons:

1. So that I can use this drive on a Windows computer if need be (which I don't plan to, but just in case)
2. Because I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro (which I still use) and which is formatted as "Mac OS Extended-Journaled". Will an APFS-formatted drive work with my old MacBook Pro? If so, I will reformat my HDD to APFS (as suggested by you).

Even if I follow your suggestion to reformat this HDD to APFS, I currently do not have access to any other drive to offload this data prior to formatting the drive, but thanks anyway:)

Also, my friend has a MacBook Air (M1), and she also has trouble mounting Exfat formatted HDDs (one is a Seagate 5 TB, another one is a WD My Passport Ultra 4 TB). Similar to the issue I was facing, her Disk Utility app does not even load when the 5 TB hard drive is connected to her Mac. None of the other options you suggested previously, e.g. relaunching Finder app, or restarting the Mac worked for her. So I'm guessing this is further proof that the problem we are facing is related to file-format?

Thanks for your inputs. Really appreciate them.

Cheers

Hi,

Unfortunately, now again my WD My Passport Ultra is not being recognised by my M2 MacBook Air (OSX: Sonoma 14.4.1 currently). Yesterday, the refreshing finder option worked, but today that option is not solving my issue! It's REALLY annoying!

When I open Disk Utility, no drive shows up there (not even my internal SSD) and there is just this spinning wheel which spins indefinitely! However, when I go to System Report and select the USB option under Hardware, my WD external drive does show up there (attached is a screenshot of the same). Pls help!

Thanks!

I was having a similar issue of my new external HDD (WD My Passport Ultra 4 TB) not mounting on my MacBook Air (M2), despite trying it several times on both of my USB-C ports. Surprisingly, even Disk Utility refused to open while this HDD was connected to my Mac. I tried to do several things, e.g. shutting down, logging out, restarting my Mac etc.., based on suggestions from people who experienced similar issues. Nothing worked! Finally, Option B (i.e. Refreshing the Finder) as suggested by "TheLittles" worked like magic for me! So thanks a lot for your suggestion, very useful:)

JiguD Said:

"Finally, Option B (i.e. Refreshing the Finder) as suggested by 'TheLittles' worked like magic for me! So thanks a lot for your suggestion, very useful:) "

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You are welcome.

View Disk Utility:

So, what happens when you view Disk Utility? Is the drive seen? If not, you may need to go about reinstalling the macOS. If so, then you're good from here.

As soon as I sent the above reply, I realised that my external WD HDD has just mounted, and I can see it on the desktop finally. This is really strange! I can't understand what is the real issue. It either does not mount, or it takes really long to do so. And this is a brand new WD HDD.

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion. However, as far as I know, this is only when you initially (i.e. first time) try and connect a new storage device (like external hard drive or flash drive) to an Apple Silicon-based Mac. I have initially "accepted" when this new security feature prompted me the first time I connected this HDD. But this is a recurring problem, and like suggested by "TheLittles", it appears to be a file system recognition format (Exfat vs APFS) issue.

But thanks anyway:)

“The problem started for me after I reseted my mac. What am I supposed to do?

The drive is not visible.”

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Getting this Drive to be Seen:

A. Use First Aid in Disk Utility:

Boot in Recovery Mode. Then go to Disk Utility, and see if the drive is seen there. Next use First Aid utility, seeing if any errors are seen(and maybe get fixed).

B. Reinstall the macOS:

You may want to try reinstalling the macOS. Sometimes, software can become corrupt, which may be the case here. Be certain you create a Time Machine Backup of your Mac prior to performing the reinstall. Thant way your’ll have something to restore your Mac from, should anything go wrong with the reinstall. If anything of a downside, you may have to purchase a new hard drive in doing so.

C. Single-Out this User:

What happens when you create a new administrator user, and then plug in the drive? If you don’t get this error, then it is an issue with your current user. If you do get this issue, then it is an issue with the entire macOS.

Hey! Just wondering if you found a fix to your issue? I'm having the same problem

The problem started for me after I reseted my mac. What am I supposed to do?

The drive is not visible.